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It was 2007 when Don Draper, figuratively depicted in the show's elegant opening titles, began his long fall through the 1960s, passing through the best of the materialist America he helps spin into being on his way to ... what?

Clearly written and brimming with telling historical details and sharp insights, The Fierce Urgency of Now is essential reading not only for those who want to understand the Great Society but for everyone concerned with how it might be preserved or expanded.

In the 40 years since Congress established strict restrictions on campaign financing, the Chamber of Commerce and the Supreme Court have hacked away at government oversight with their First Amendment sickles.

The Keystone XL Pipeline is the 1,664 mile project that has become the political football of the 114th Congress. What most folks don't know about this football is that it is already operating from Steele City, Nebraska to Port Arthur, Texas.

Belichick may be a genius on the gridiron, devising offensive and defensive schemes no one has ever thought of before, but in handling controversy, he is tearing pages out of the flawed playbooks of Richard Nixon and Gary Hart.

This was a busy week in politics, as the Republicans in the new Congress began a bout of legislating and President Obama ramped up his agenda in preparation for next Tuesday's big speech to Congress and the country.

The battle over MLK Day moved a Super Bowl. Southern states weren't the last to celebrate it. The law making it a national holiday was signed by a Republican President. And you'll never guess who voted for it in the U.S. Senate!

President Barack Obama just spoke on the telephone with the leader of Cuba to finalize the two countries' new relations -- an event that hadn't happened in over half a century. The Cold War is now almost completely a matter of interest only to historians, to put things into context.

One of the wildest black comedies ever made, 1964's Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb still stands today for its daring send-up of military and governmental leaders who take American us into nuclear war.

Frum and Corn agree that the Feinstein Committee documents "torture" and should have been released but they clash on justifications for the torture. Ditto on Bush-Cheney legacy since, argues Frum, "Safety is the goal of the state." Also: Why can't Obama get any economic respect?

When you ask why are so many people out in the street, I'd say we've reached a tipping point, in the original, pre-Malcolm Gladwell use of the term. The scale that's tipping, simply, is justice. It was already going over when the torture report hit like a ton of bricks.

The ousting of three-term U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-Louisiana) from her seat in the U.S. Senate by U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) put the capper on the white Southern flip-flop from Democrat to Republican. The stock explanation for this change is race, gut there's another explanation for the GOP's lock on Southern whites that's every bit as compelling.